Brewed the hard way???

Yesterday, we witnessed what will surely be labeled as a "classic" Super Bowl. My beloved Patriots took on (and were almost beaten by) the Seattle Seahawks looking to defend their title. Had it not been for a bone headed play call and a spectacular interception in the final 30 seconds of the game, they most likely would have done just that. However, they didn't, and I couldn't be happier about it!


Seriously, has there ever been a bigger interception, or a worse play call in Super Bowl history?

....but I digress.

The game isn't what I want to talk about (at least not here). I want to talk about the commercials, or more specifically, A commercial, this one......

If you are on any sort of beer websites, blogs, facebook pages, whatever, you have no doubt seen countless discussions, or mile long threads about this ad, and its perceived (and probably justifiably so) slight on Craft Beer drinkers. I think people are missing one big point however......

What was this ad intended to do?

Convert craft drinkers to Bud? Won't happen, In Bev knows this....or was it simply meant to piss off Craft Beer Drinkers? Well, that really isn't hard, just serve them a beer in a frosty glass, its cheaper then a Super Bowl ad, and almost as effective. No, this ad, as with all ads,  was meant to promote the brand of Budweiser, and to a large Corporation like AB InBev, promoting a brand means you get people talking about it, good or bad. In that, they succeeded, and succeeded huge! Like I said before, if you spent any time on any craft beer site, or page, you will have seen the discussions, posts, meme whatever, about this ad. I can't remember the last time so many craft people were talking about Bud. The old saying "there is no such thing as bad publicity" is true. Bud wanted to get craft people talking about their beer, and that's exactly what happened.

A great response from Firestone Walker

Now, let me say, I think a lot of the discussion is justified. The ad took a shot, and people are right to respond and 'defend' themselves. However, I didn't take this ad personally, it didn't make me mad, I'm not going to start a crusade against Goose Island, or any such thing. This ad did nothing to change my opinion of them, or their product. This is something I would expect from them.
The ad worked, plan and simple. Love it, or hate it, it did what it was suppose to do. This ad has as much to do with their beer as a lost puppy, but both get their name in the news, and on peoples mind, and thus, on their lips (at least talking, not drinking, necessarily) . Hell, I am even writing about it, damn it, I was sucked in!

So, like this ad claims, Budweiser may be made for drinking, but I like beer that is made for tasting, and enjoying, savoring, and yes, god forbid, maybe even a little dissection. That is the only reason I drink beer, and not because some ad tells me to drink it, or which one to drink, and despite the fact that some people may think me "snobbish" to do so, but that is why I drink beer, and its why we all should drink beer. Drink what you like, not what your told......

And drink local!

I challenge you to do this in the next week or so. Go to a local brew pub, one that doesn't distribute

much further then their door step, if at all. Ask the bartender if you can see the owner, or the Brewmaster, because you want to speak to them. I can almost guarantee you, if they are there, they will come out to speak to you. If they have time (and please, ask if they do, they can be very busy), talk to them, ask them about their beer, and why they brew. Trust me, the answers you get will not be anything you will ever hear in a Budweiser ad.

Oh, and don't forget to thank them, and support them.

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

Budweiser Clydesdales in Downtown Chandler!!

Not something you see everyday! The Budweiser Clydesdales were in downtown Chandler today. Now, regardless of how you feel about the beer, these animals are an impressive site! They were filming for a commercial for a campaign to make Opening Day a national holiday! I was unable to get down there, but I did want to share a few pic's from the day. Photos courtesy of the city of Chandler.

Passing in front of SanTan Brew Pub!

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

The Budweiser Buddy Cup

The Old Way....

OK, I've talked at length on this blog about all the stupid shit Budweiser and the other big breweries have done in hopes of regaining some of their lost market share. Well, every now and then, the millions of dollars spent pays off. I present to you, The Budweiser Buddy Cup! I think this idea actually has the potential of being VERY cool. Each "Buddy Cup" has a chip, and a QR code on it. You scan the QR code to connect your "Buddy Cup" to your Facebook profile. Then, when you are chatting with other folks, and you want to "connect", all you have to do is a little "cheers", clink you cups, you see the little lights "light up" and that means you are now friends via social media.

Check this out....

To me, this is a nice blend of "social" media, and actually BEING social. I think this sort of technology can

The New Way!

go far, and have a lot of great applications in the craft beer community. Think about this at Beer Festivals? Instantly connecting with other beer lovers, or brewers, beer buyers, or yes, even bloggers! I am sure, at this point, the cost would prohibit smaller, or even the average of larger sized breweries from adopting this sort of tech, but give it a few years, the cost will come down, and the usable applications will increase.

OK, so, every now and then, Budweiser gets it right, and this, I think has some awesome potential, lets hope I am right. I guess however, at this point, we will just have to wait and see.

Until next time
Bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

Dressing up a turd.....

There, it is now cold enough to not taste it!

You hear similar references to this in the beer community every time a mega brewer comes out with a new bottle, or marketing gimmick (i.e. Vortex bottles, or cold blue mountains on your bottle). It seems to be happening a lot more these days, as the mega brewers see their strangle hold on the beer market slipping away. Now, let me say up front, I don't believe for a second American Macro brew is in any danger of going the way of the Dodo bird. They are obviously  a little nervous about the surge in craft beer sales however. Not a month seems to pass, where we don't see what the big boys are doing to try and lure away craft drinkers away from their beloved craft brews, back to the watery macros of the big boys. A while back, the furor was over mega brewers packaging their beers to "appear" to be craft, without printing their names on the package. I don't agree with them doing this, but I can understand why they do, and in many cases, it was/is effective for them. And maybe even a smart, albeit dishonest thing to do.

Everything you ever wanted in a beer, and less???

The area that seems to be their favorite area to lure people back to big beer is packaging and marketing. Dressing up their watery suds in pretty bottles, limited edition cans, fancy case wrappings etc. All over beer threads and blogs all over the internet, you will read the question asked over and over "why don't they just talk about whats in the can, not about the can itself?" Well, its pretty simple, because they can't. They can not compete with craft beer when it comes to complexity of taste. Miller can say their beer "tastes great", but to me, "great" doesn't really describe how it tastes at all. You don't hear the makers of economy cars bragging about how fast their cars are, and how they can go toe to toe with exotic sports cars, because they can't. Its not what makes their cars attractive to car buyers. When you can't compete on taste, what else is there? Marketing and packaging and creating an image of the beer drinker. Now I don't begrudge the big boys for doing this, but it seems to be a weak attempt to reignite sales. I mean, if you are in a failing marriage, you can't stand your wife, she hates you, and all you do is fight. How would you fix it? Go to marriage counseling and fix whats broken right? Not if you are a big brewer. What would they do? They would just go out and buy a new wardrobe, and pray that makes everything all better! Then wonder why it doesn't.

Just looks like a can wearing a belt to me

The latest examples I've seen of these gimmicks are pretty interesting actually. First off. on May 6th, Budweiser is going to start selling 8 packs (that's right, 8 packs) of its flagship brew, in 11.3 oz, bow tie shaped cans! That's right, how cool is that? Um, really, I mean, is this really that cool? According to AB InBev, they are pretty excited about it, and say this about it "Its a conversation starter, eye catching, easy to grip (really?), trendy, and according to our research, appealing to young adults" Trendy? Easy to grip? I can see it now, the only conversation I see this starting is "what the hell is wrong with your can?" So there you go, if you stopped drinking Budweiser because the can was just too boring or difficult to grip, well, come May 6th, you can go back to drinking it with ease and excitement!


This next one is just bizarre. Heineken creates a bottle that lights up? The bottle has built in LED lights that seem to be sound and/or motion activated. check out the video.....

OK, so it might be kind of cool, but why? The only place I see this working is at night clubs, where folks are more concerned with looking good, and spending money they don't have in a pathetic attempt to appeal to club chicks that I guess are impressed by just such a thing. You could probably charge $20 a bottle for this, and in clubs, after folks get a few drinks in them, will probably start snatching these beer trinkets up left and right. Luckily  this is just a concept, and as far as I can find, there are no plans to release this to the general public (for now), but still, the fact that there is a lot of money being spent on crap like this, just makes me shake my head and ask why?

Now, don't get me wrong, I love a cool label, or a clever ad as much as anyone, but still, if the product behind the ad or label is just not good, then all you have in the end is just a cool label, or funny ad. You put a quality product behind that, and you have a real money maker on your hands!

Until next time
Bottoms Up my friends!
The Beer Czar